Once upon a time, the terrorist attacks in Paris would have evoked an impersonal response in me. But now, I view them with a telephoto lens. I know the streets, the boulevards, the buildings. After living in France for a month last summer, I know something of the French ...

The sad eradication of matriarchy and prevalence of patriarchy.

After nearly a decade, I am back in Washington, D.C. wandering the majestic monuments. And even though I have been to DC several times during the aughts, I feel inexplicably nostalgic.
Is it because I first walked these streets nearly three and a half decades ago, I wonder? Or ...

Not long ago, I announced in these very pages that a TV show like Breaking Bad will never come again. Well, I have to eat humble pie and say that there is a show just as good as Breaking Bad, if not better.
I am talking of The Wire.
I ...

I watched the televised debate between Governor Jerry Brown and Republican challenger Neel Kashkari with interest. Just the other day, an Indian friend had pointed out that Kashkari had voluntarily become homeless in order to study poverty. “It must be a publicity stunt,” I said. “When you have millions, it ...

From the top of a double decker train, I watch the Riviera go by. The word, Riviera, conjures up a sepia colored village in my mind, straight out of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. So, on my way from a writers’ residency in Italy to one in France, I have ...

When I applied to a writers’ residency in Otranto, Italy, I did not even know where the town was. I filled out the paperwork half-heartedly, not sure if I wanted to go. So, when I got the letter of acceptance, I reviewed a map and located the place, a ...

Watching Particle Fever, a documentary, I experienced a visceral reaction. I was jumping out of my seat; I was animated and exhilarated. I could not wait to find out how it all came out, even as a part of me traveled down memory lane, wondering if I could still ...

The other day I was driving along, daydreaming to the rhythm of NPR, when a voice from the past jarred me out of my reverie. It was John Holdren, President Obama’s top science advisor, discussing the administration’s recent report on climate change.
But I could start the ...

Buried deep inside my mind is a sepia colored scene from early childhood, its hues taken from the films we used to see on the streets during festival time. In the scene, I am sitting beside my father Dada on a plywood divan in the front room of our ...